Blade Runner 2049 was a box office bomb, grossing $249.6 million worldwide against a budget that required $400 million to break even. It opened to $81.7 million globally, below expectations of $100 million, with particularly weak performances in China and other international markets. While the original Blade Runner explored questions of what it means to be human, reviews note Blade Runner 2049 struggles to communicate its examination of existential themes to audiences through cinema.

1. BLADE RUNNER
2049

2. INSTITUTION
As of November 19, 2017, Blade Runner 2049 had
grossed $89.3 million in the United States and Canada,
and $160.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total
of $249.6 million. The film was a box office bomb and is
expected to lose Alcon Entertainment about $80 million,
as the producers said that it needed to earn around $400
million worldwide "to be a win".
Overseas, it was expected to debut to an additional
$60 million, for a worldwide opening of around
$100 million. The debut ended up making $50.2 million
internationally, finishing number one in 45 markets, for a
global opening of $81.7 million. It made $8 million in the
United Kingdom, $4.9 million in Russia, $1.8 million in
Brazil and $3.6 million in Australia. It opened in China on
October 27 and flopped with an opening of $7.7 million.

3. “If the original Blade Runner has been looked upon as a
prime example of postmodern soul searching with a dash
of relativism, then how to classify 2049, a sequel that is
bigger/everything/more than its precursor”
“Soullessness and existential grappling are dicey subjects
when it comes to cinema. Although the work of Ingmar
Bergman makes it look straightforward, the human interior
is all the more rough and complex to communicate in a
medium that doesn't allow for character's thoughts”
RESEARCH
https://www.theguardian.com/film/blade-runner-2049
https://www.wired.com/2017/10/geeks-guide-blade-
runner-2049/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/movies/blade-
runner-2049-review-ryan-gosling-harrison-ford.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAb8KIhgVAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Conqym49sWI
Action, Thriller, Adventure, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Neo-noir & a
masterpiece.
http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/blade-
runner/52370/blade-runner-2049-a-spoiler-
filled-exploration - conventions

4. POSTMODERN?
Baudrillard states that: “another film often cited as ‘postmodern’
is Blade Runner, in which science, technology and progress are
all questioned and shown in some way to have ‘failed’. The
world in blade runner is polluted by industry and overcrowding;
only the rich escape to the ‘off-worlds’. One of the key themes
of the film is the ‘blurring’ of the differences between the real
and the artificial, between the humans and the replicants.
Increasingly it is no longer possible to be clear about what it
means to be human
Blade runner is an exemplary postmodern text in the sense that
it both represents the conditions of post modernity and
employs elements of the postmodern condition to texture its
narrative. In its form, content and ideological centre Blade
Runner explores and utilities the strategies o quotation,
recycling, pastiche, hyper reality and identity crisis.